What really stood out about Alcibiades's speech, to me anyway, was that he described philosophy as a snake that bites your heart and you are infected with its venom.
This is a very different view from Nietzsche's, which compared philosophy to a foothold from which philosophers could skip on to the next step wearing leis and singing with woodland creatures.
However, I think this other description of philosophy is also very accurate. Philosophy isn't always rainbows and sunshine and wonder about the world. It is often despair and anxiety over the things that we can't explain.
The venom of philosophy isn't something we can easily get rid of, either. How do you train a mind not to wonder once it's learned how? Seeing all of the philosophical questions in the world is like noticing that your favorite shoes have a scratch on them. You don't know how it got there, but suddenly you can't unsee it. You wonder about what life would be like if you were just ignorant to the different issues that plague you, but there's no going back. In a sense, that is what is so beneficial about philosophy. It forces you to deal with things, rather than shove them under the rug like, "LOL, brb."
I guess it's more of a tough love on philosophy's part.
I like the distinction you draw between nietzsche and Alcibiades. Different ways of explaining a similar phenomenon.
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